MDA working on mega-constellations
August 20, 2021
By Chris Forrester
Canada-based satellite component supplier MDA reports it is actively bidding on supplying several mega-constellations of satellites in addition to the contracts it has in place with Telesat’s broadband-by-satellite Lightspeed project and OneWeb.
MDA’s CEO Mike Greenley says the company expects to see revenues of some C$800 million (€547.3m) from its Lightspeed contracts between this year and 2025. It is supplying antennas for the first 300 Lightspeed low Earth orbiting craft, as well as gateway Earth stations for the satellites.
Greenley did not specify the precise work or companies MDA was bidding on other than to say that they were in a similar size to the Lightspeed contracts.
However, he guided that revenues for 2021 would not be as great as last year when it was directly involved in supplying components for 17 of the 21 geostationary satellites contracted during the year.
Currently MDA’s work is focussed on LEO opportunities and in particular OneWeb for which it is supplying 3600 subsystem antennas at a rate of some 40 sets per month.
Greenley announced that MDA’s Q2 revenues grew 15.5 per cent to C$126.7 million, and its backlog of contracts grew 13.7 per cent to C$640 million. MDA has hired more than 435 new employees since the beginning of the year.